


Prayer

by Groomps



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Gen, i am so sorry i was feeling angsty, yeah probably mark later in the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-07 16:08:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4269624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Groomps/pseuds/Groomps
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He just knew he had to leave, he didn’t know where. What he knew is that he had to get out of there, fast. Clear his mind from all the shit that went down today. The night sky was starry tonight, he noted, as he got into his car and drove, despite the protests of his friends. Well, of all but one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He just knew he had to leave, he didn’t know where. What he knew is that he had to get out of there, fast. Clear his mind from all the shit that went down today. The night sky was starry tonight, he noted, as he got into his car and drove, despite the protests of his friends. Well, of all but one.

**_~15 minutes ago~_ **

“Dan, _god damnit_!” Arin shouted at his friend, who had just had the misfortune of accidentally letting a crystal plate land on the floor with a smash. The plate didn’t survive, smashing to a million tiny pieces, and Arin was sure Dan wasn’t going to survive either from his wrath.

“Look what you fucking did!” Arin continued to shout at Dan, who just wanted to curl up into a tight ball. Or punch Arin square in the face. Either would work _wonders_ for his sanity right now.

“Sorry, I’ll clean it up!” Dan retaliated, rushing to find something to clean up the mess on the floor with. He turned to Suzy, who was sitting on the couch, and gave her a frowned look. She just silently shrugged her shoulders. Arin had been behaving weirdly for the past couple of days, most likely with family drama as he mentioned once, and he had decided to take his anger and frustration out on his friends. Specifically Dan. Arin had realized he was giving his best friend a hard time, but he couldn’t be bothered.

Dan had done practically nothing that could possibly make Arin angry or upset, until now. Timing was not on his side, and he mumbled a few curse words at his luck, wishing he could have broken a plate anytime other than today. Besides, who cared about that plate? There were tons more in there, and Dan just wanted to pour his skittles in.

Apparently, it bothered Arin. And it bothered him a lot.

“Don’t fucking bother!” Arin let out a groan and went to grab a broom and a dustpan to swipe the remains of the plate in, and handed it to Dan.

“Now bother.” Dan grabbed the tools out of Arin’s hands, and mumbled to himself. Apparently that was also a bad thing, as it quickly caught Arin’s attention.

“What was that?!” He was practically fuming, and Dan couldn’t help but grin over how this was happening over a fucking plate.

“Nothing, Arin.” Dan was trying his best not to push Arin’s buttons, as he understood the guy was stressed out and this was most likely not him. The real Arin would not fuss over a broken plate, the real Arin would laugh it off and probably smash another, to be brutally honest.

“That didn’t sound like nothing to me, Dan.” Dan looked for an escape, only finding Suzy on the couch. Ross was home with Holly, as he was done recording stuff a few hours ago, and Barry and Kevin were too busy editing the latest footage they received. At that moment, Dan wondered if the audience would realize something was off about Arin during these episodes. Someone on Reddit would, there’s always that one guy on Reddit who does detective work on them. And he’s usually surprisingly wrong, seeing as how he most likely would have spent countless hours stalking their profiles and recent cons to try and find something linking to any ‘crime’. Especially ones involving Jon.

“Dan, are you listening?!” Arin’s shout made Dan snap out of his trance.

“Yeah.” He lied. He lied and Arin could see that. It’s like he could smell it, like a predator could smell the fear emitting from its victim before it devoured it. And Arin was pretty hungry.

“Don’t lie to me, Avidan. I’ll repeat this once again, so your small brain can comprehend it; If you fuck up once more, I swear to God shit can and will go down. You’ve been surprisingly pissing me off these past couple of days.” Dan couldn’t help it but huff, because it was quite the opposite, should he say.

“What?” When Dan didn’t answer, Arin crossed his arms.

“What?!”

“It is quite the opposite, mind you.” Dan could practically hear Suzy glaring daggers at him, probably thinking ‘Oh God Dan what the fuck are you thinking you know Arin’s not himself c’mon don’t challenge him’.

Now look. Dan’s quite the simple guy. He doesn’t hold grudges on anyone other than himself, and not for long either.

Well, until today, that was.

“What the literal _fuck_ is wrong with you?” Dan finally erupted, earning a surprised, and quite offended, look from Arin, and another glare from Suzy he could feel was touching his spine.

“With _me_?!”

“Yes, with you! What the fuck has been going on with you?! You’ve been acting like a complete dickhead all the time, you’re pissed about things that don’t even fucking matter, and quite honestly, who cares about the fucking plate?!” Dan could feel himself getting red from suppressed anger erupting that he had been withdrawing for the past couple of days. Suzy actually got up and slowly walked up to them.

“What’s wrong with me?! You’re the one that has been getting on my fucking nerves all week! You’re such an annoying fucking dipshit!”

“Me?! Listen to yourself, man! You’ve not been acting yourself! I have been doing what I have been doing for the past 2 fucking years, now you suddenly decided to get all sissy?!”

“Maybe it’s because I can’t fucking stand you!” That hit Dan, and it hit hard. Deep down there was a voice that repeatedly said ‘don’t believe him he loves you dearly c’mon he’s just been very stressed lately and he’s blowing up on you’ but, frankly, he didn’t quite believe it this time, even if it was the complete truth.

“Guys, please, calm down!” Suzy walked over to her husband and grabbed his arm, pulling him back. But he wouldn’t budge. And neither would Dan’s eyes from glaring at Arin’s, never letting go.

“So that’s how it is, huh?” Suzy mentally facepalmed herself, and wished she could communicate through thoughts so she could give Dan a lesson on ‘How to properly know when a friend is stressed out and not himself Dan what the literal shit don’t believe him’.

Arin shook Suzy’s hands away, his glare fixed on his best friend. “Yeah, you piss me off so much. I don’t see how I haven’t kicked you out yet. No one even likes you here.” Dan just smiled an angry smile, practically fuming. Suzy made another attempt at breaking up what was happening here, by trying to pull Arin away.

“Suzy, back off.” Arin didn’t break off eye contact with Dan. Suzy pulled him back again, and this time he quickly turned around and pushed her hands away.

“I said back the fuck off!!” He shouted at her, and that was the last straw, the trigger that caused Dan to land a punch right on Arin’s jaw, sending him stumbling to the wall, much to Suzy’s dismay and scream, which alerted Barry.

“Don’t talk to your wife like that, asshole!” Arin held his hand to his jaw, moving it around in pain. That angry smile still lingered on his face. With a quick move, he reached and puched Dan right on the nose, sending him stumbling backwards. Barry turned to Kevin, pulled his headphones out and dragged him from the sleeve to get up and they both marched to them.

Dan could feel the blood running down his nose as he ran to Arin and pushed him down, sending both to the floor as each bit and punched wherever they could, both tossing and turning. Suzy started shouting, just as Barry arrived and pulled Dan away.

“Hold the fucking phone! Easy there! Stop!” Barry practically had to peel Dan off of Arin, and still continued to hold him as Arin got up with the help of Suzy.

“Are you both out of your mind?! What the fuck happened here?!”

“Nothing, Bar. Nothing.”

“Well, assuming I am seeing correctly, your lingering glare on Arin doesn’t seem like nothing, Dan. Now will someone explain what the hell happened?!” Barry stood next to Kevin.

“Well for starters, Arin was acting like a complete _dickhead_ -“

“Same goes to you.”

“-and he started attacking me for no reason because I dropped a fucking plate to the ground, something not worth starting a fuss about.”

“Not my fault you can’t do anything right, Avidan.”

“Enough. Is that true, Arin?” Barry stared at Arin, who let out a huff.

“Yeah, it is. What’s also true is the fact that I cannot simply stand this fuckface anymore. You’ve been getting on my nerves, old man. You piss me off so fucking much. I wish Jon never left, so I and the audience wouldn’t have to deal with your ass for 2 years. No one likes you anyway, you and your stupid fucking band.” silence fell upon the group, each member not believing in their eyes and ears what was happening. All eyes fell on Dan, who just stared at Arin, all traces of a smile lost on his face. Well, except for Arin himself, who had a rather sinister and angry looking smile on his face the entire time.

Dan swallowed, stared at his friend, betrayed by his words that he couldn’t believe came out of his mouth, and just left. He pushed past him, went to the front door and slammed it shut as he exited the office. The entire time, Barry, Suzy and Kevin were running after him, trying to get him to come back. All their attempts were worthless as Dan got into his car, slammed the door shut and drove off before they were even out of the building.

**_~present~_ **

He didn’t know where he was going. He figured he would take a self-tour across the city to clear out his mind. He knew he couldn’t drown pain away with alcohol; he was driving for God’s sake. 10 minutes into the ride he found himself having a tear run down his cheek, which he angrily wiped away with his sleeve. He doesn’t cry, and he wouldn’t cry over something as unimportant as this.

So that’s how it was. Arin secretly couldn’t stand him, and it all came out in one big rush of anger. He knew some people still wanted Jon back, he knew some people hated him for taking the role of someone as beloved as Jon, he knew some people didn’t give ten shits about him and his stupid band, they just wanted him, the doofy afro hair guy to be gone.

His phone went off quite a bit, mostly texts from Suzy and Barry, and occasionally Kevin. Texts like ‘where r u’, ‘dan we’re worried please come back’, ‘Arin wants to apologize’ which he knew was 100% grade A bullshit. He even got a few phone calls from them, which he declined and ultimately shut off his phone as it distracted him from the road.

Deep down he knew what Arin said was absolutely not true. It was just in the heat of the moment. There were punches thrown around, so naturally Arin was pissed. But what if he was pissed and the truth accidentally came out? What if everyone really hated him? Would they, and the channel, be better off if he was gone?

That was the last thought that crossed his mind as out of the corner of his eye, he saw a truck heading straight for him. He felt the collision of the two metal car bodies crushing into each other. He felt the white hot pain searing through his entire body. He felt the screams escaping his mouth as he was tossed around in his car. He felt the tears now freely running down his face. But most of all, he felt that lingering heartache deep inside of him. And in that moment, he thought of one thing.

_I guess now they’ll be better off._


	2. Chapter 2

Time had quickly passed in the Grump Space, which was filled with silence. After the hurtful words Arin spat out at his friend and the poor attempts of the others to try and contact Dan, they had quickly given up and returned to doing their work, figuring out Dan just needed some time to himself, and some time away from Arin.

Mostly some time away from Arin.

Barry and Kevin returned to editing the latest episodes, which left Suzy and Arin awkwardly sitting together on the couch, an awkward silence lingering around them.

"I'm sorry for earlier, you know," Arin finally turned and faced Suzy, who was still shaken up.

"Sorry for shouting at you, I didn't mean to." Suzy gazed at her husband, but he did not return it, his eyes instead focusing on the fabric of the couch.

"I'm not the only person you should apologize to." That caught Arin's attention, and he finally looked at her in the eyes.

"Dan will be fine, Suzy. He just needs to get out of here for a while." His expression became distant, and Suzy found herself letting out a heavy sigh.

"Arin, he's been gone for over an hour. Hasn't returned any calls or texts."

"He's probably home sleeping, he'll be back tomorrow." Arin retaliated, his tone getting more irritated. He wanted to lay off the subject, and fast.

"Arin, I know you didn't mean those words. We all do. And you know it yourself." And with that, Suzy petted him on the hair, got up and went to the kitchen to finally clean the remains of the broken plate, still laid out on the floor in a thousand pieces.

Deep within himself, Arin knew he did not mean everything he had said to Dan. He loved him as a brother, they were the best of friends. At first he did find himself missing Jon, but that quickly passed. Besides, they made up at Magfest, so he got to hang out with his old pal for a while, and it was pretty fucking amazing.

But that did not mean that he _hated_ Dan, or he wanted him to leave.

Dan _liked_ Jon. Dan thought of Jon as a friend, even asked him to participate in an NSP music video, which Jon gladly agreed to.

It was all in the heat of the moment. Telling him how he missed Jon, which was partially true. Telling him off about his band, which was a particularly shitty thing to do and absolutely not true. Seriously, when Arin found out about NSP it was long before the Game Grumps was even put into consideration. He loved it, he truly loved it, and that was the reason he had decided to get in contact with Dan in the first place.

He just found him out to be a cool dude with a wicked band and a lot of creativity.

Well, if by creativity he meant dick jokes flying left and right, then sure.

Arin's trance was interrupted by his phone ringing, which he puled out a bit too enthusiastically. He hoped it was Dan, he hoped that his friend was going to have a lengthy chat with him and they were going to make up for whatever hell was raised an hour ago and things would go back to normal, with dick jokes and good times, and Dan getting treated a lot better than he was this past week.

When he was met with Dan's name on the screen, he answered it a little too quickly.

And that was a mistake.

All that he caught were the words 'car accident', 'emergency contact' and 'critical condition', before he replied with a shaky 'we'll be there', and hung up. He slowly got up, his hands shaking. Suzy looked at him with a puzzled look on her face, before he uttered the truth. Suzy's anguished scream was the least of his worries now.

He had to get to his best friend, and fast.

~~

He didn't know he was Dan's emergency contact. That was all that was going through his mind as he drove to the hospital his friend was in. Barry was next to him, the calmest of all.

Arin admired how calm Barry could remain in times like these. He was the rock of this crew.

At the back sat Kevin, who was hugging a sobbing Suzy and holding on to her for dear life. He hadn't lost his composure yet, but Suzy crying into his arms was making it difficult.

Arin had called Ross, hoping it wouldn't be Holly who would pick up.

And would you look at his luck today, it _was_ fucking Holly.

All he heard from the other line was a scream, and a groaning Ross asking whatever the fuck was going on. He had probably woken them up, and he felt bad about it. He spoke to him, and he reacted pretty much the same way Arin himself had reacted when he found out. And so Ross and Holly were on their way, a bit behind.

"Arin." Barry's voice interrupted his thoughts. He ignored him and focused on the road.

"Arin, you want me to drive?" Barry insisted.

"No, it's fine."

"Arin, you're way over the speed limit. Pull over and I can drive. You're too tense."

" _I said_ _I'm fine, Barry_!!" Arin finally snapped, almost losing control of the car and causing Suzy to yelp in her seat, Thankfully, Kevin was there.

"Alright, Arin. I need you to calm down. You're going way too fast. I know you're angry. I know you're upset, confused. Just please slow down. You don't want us to end up like Dan, do you?"

"Dan's fine, he'll be fine and you and me both know it." Arin growled, but still slowed down by a lot. Barry sighed and looked out the window. He just hoped it was just like Arin was making it out to be.

~~

When they finally arrived to the hospital without any more episodes, the group got out of the car and rushed into the building, ultimately finding the receptionist.

"Hi, we're looking for a certain Dan Avidan, he was rushed here because of a car accident??" Barry said, taking over the role of being the responsible adult here.

Each and everyone of them held their breaths as the receptionist, an old woman clearly bored out of her mind, searched through file upon file. Arin was getting irritated, tapping his hand on the table and shaking his foot in anticipation.

"ICU second floor." The millisecond she uttered those words, Arin was up and running to the stairs because fuck the elevator, Suzy running right behind him along with Kevin. Barry groaned and ran right behind them.

The staircase wasn't long, and they were on the second floor within seconds. Arin started running alongside the hallways, pushing past people in an attempt to find the ICU. Behind him were his friends, shouting at him to slow down.

He completely ignored them, and kept running like he had never run before. He pushed past a doctor, who started yelling at him before he got shoved to the side by Suzy and Kevin. Barry stopped next to him, uttered his apologies in behalf of his friends and began following them once more.

Within 5 minutes they had found it. Arin was ready to enter when an unknown voice stopped him in his tracks. Soon the others were standing next to him, when a doctor approached them.

"Mr. Avidan's friends?"

All four uttered a yes at the same time, especially Arin.

"Who's Mr. Hanson?"

"Right here. How's Danny?"

"Well, he is currently undergoing surgery. Massive internal bleeding, external injuries, head trauma." With every injury the doctor listed off, Arin felt his heart shatter. This was all his fault, if he hadn't decided to open his _big fucking mouth_ Dan would be alright now. He wouldn't be in a hospital, he wouldn't be in the surgery bed.

"Is he going to be okay?" Barry stepped forward, clasping at Arin's shoulder as support for what he may not may not hear.

"Well, he was in an extremely critical condition when he arrived, the paramedics were shocked that he survived-"

"How?" Arin's gaze touched the floor, and slowly trailed up the doctor.

"Excuse me?"

"How did it happen? Do you have any idea? Did Danny crash himself?"

"It appears that a truck crashed on his car, sending it and him off the road and to a pole. The car is completely trashed."

Barry found himself subconsciously squeezing Arin's shoulder, to support Arin and himself.

Mostly himself.

"Um, as I was saying, we'll see once the surgery is complete. Feel free to go home, or-"

"We'll stay." Arin cut him off, glaring at him because how could they _'possibly just go back when they are here now what the fuck is his deal'_.

Alright. We'll notify you once it's complete. Feel free to go to the waiting room, or stay here, there are chairs if you don't feel comfortable in the waiting room." And with that, the doctor was on his way. Arin collapsed on the chair behind him, and everyone else followed after. Arin hid his face in his palms. Suzy kept crying in Kevin's shoulders, and Barry's hand never left his friend's shoulder.

He needed every support he could get, and he needed it now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this is too sad I'm just a giant sad meme
> 
> I don't know much about hospitals so if anyone has any tips on how to improve the whole hospital feel/information about rooms and stuff please let me know so I can fix mistakes/not make the same mistakes next time! Thanks! <3


	3. Chapter 3

The silence was deafening, _horrid_. Here they were, sat across chairs, just waiting. Not knowing what was going to happen, not knowing what the hell they were waiting for. They were just settled in for a long wait.

The only sounds that momentarily broke the silence were the footsteps of unaware people and doctors.

Ross and Holly had arrived a few moments ago, running along the hallways in panic. Now they were all spread out across chairs, Barry and Kevin occasionally trying to make small talk with Ross, informing him on what hell was unleashed and Holly and Suzy sitting together, Holly trying to comfort Suzy.

The only one who kept the silence intact was Arin. He had his face cupped in his hands, blocking out everything and everyone, and just thinking, mentally kicking himself for this whole situation that was taking place.

How were they supposed to tell everyone about this? Hey guys, I had a heated argument with Dan and in the heat of the moment deeply insulted him, making him think I wasn’t even his friend, and now he crashed his car and is in critical condition in a fucking _hospital_! Hooray!

It was all his fault, and he knew it, Arin found himself thinking. If he had not decided to open his big fucking mouth and insult Dan, this would not be happening. No, they would all be home, Dan would be home. He would have cleaned up the broken remains of the plate, that fucking plate that had decided to dive bomb into the ground, then he would be salty towards Arin for a few hours, depending on his mood, and then everything would be okay.

He wished that were the case.

Anger was a bit contagious between him and Dan. First the shouting of one would anger the other, then the defensiveness and the insults, but usually things would cool down after a short period of time. One of them would go take a walk for two minutes and things would return to normal. They always did. They were friends and co-workers, they couldn’t be mad at each other for eternity.

Arin was sure that Dan liked Jon, and that Jon liked Arin. There was nothing salty about the two. After Jon left, Dan happily took his place, of course with a little stab of hesitation. He knew he would probably be the most hated person on the Internet for a while, if the show would even work out.

And it did.

Dan and Arin clicked, somehow. The show continued as usual, like nothing had happened, and slowly Dan became loved by everybody, including Arin.

Especially Arin.

Dan thought highly of him, he was sure, just like he himself thought highly of Dan. And there was absolutely no reason to be thinking about Jon.

Of course the 18 months of silence about him was a whole other story.

So when Arin decided to be the biggest sore dipshit the world had ever seen and mention Jon in an attempt to shove away Dan from that heated conversation by saying how he wished Jon would come back, he truly hurt Dan. It’s like those 2 years were a fake, an act. And Dan believed him. Because that’s how Dan is. He trusts and believes people a bit too much.

Of _course_ he didn’t wish Jon would come back! Those days are over. Of course Jon and him are still buddies, they grab lunch whenever he’s into town. But his prime on Game Grumps was over, _done_.

“I fucked it up”, Arin found himself muttering, and buried his face in his hands with a deep sigh. Of course that caught the attention of mother-hen Barry, who landed a hand on his shoulder. Arin could feel his gaze.

“You alright, bud?” His voice was warm and comforting. _Truly a mother-hen._

“Yeah, Bar, fine.” _Yeah, because that definitely sounded like someone who was fine. Go, Arin._

But Barry waited expectantly, never letting his hand go. Soon, Arin was staring right at him.

“I fucked it up, Barry. This is all my fault. This whole mess is my fault. I hurt Dan, and now everything is ruined. What if he doesn’t make it? What if? I won’t be able to live with myself, Barry.”

All Barry did was lightly pat his friend’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. He is going to pull through for us, for you. I’m sure he won’t be mad at you. He knows you didn’t mean what you said, and you know it too.” Barry’s such a good fucking listener.

“Really?” Arin wiped a tear that rolled down his cheek, and Barry smiled that warm smile again, that encouraging smile that indicates that everything was going to be okay in the end.

“Honestly and truly.” And with that, the conversation was over. Back to waiting and thinking.

Despite what Barry said, Arin did what he thought best, even though he thought it was incredibly stupid.

He prayed.

He prayed a collective prayer to every God, every religion, every single deity he could think of. He prayed that Dan would be alright.

~~

As 3 AM rolled by, half of the crew had returned home. Barry and Kevin actually had to; they had the episodes to finish editing and would probably pull all-nighters, seeing as how they weren’t even halfway done. Arin had forced Suzy to go home and get some rest as she was incredibly worn out, and that was his fault. The sheer stress everyone was experiencing was all his fucking fault.

So that left him, Ross and Holly, who had fallen asleep on Ross’ shoulder, in the dark with that disgusting hospital coffee just waiting for any news on Dan. The surgery had been going for a few hours now, and more were expected. Some doctors tried to get them to leave but that was clearly impossible with Arin. Ross and Holly had stayed out of spite for Arin, to offer him some support, and of course because they too were worried as fuck about their friend.

Arin would get glimpses of Ross, seeing the bags under his eyes as he sipped his coffee and browsed Twitter on his phone, and wanted to throw himself off a cliff because he was more than likely the cause of these bags under his eyes.

“How should we tell everyone?” Arin finally broke the silence, and Ross turned away from his phone to face him.

“Hm?”

“How do we break the news?” Ross squinted at Arin until he got the message, and let out an ‘oh’.

“I don’t know. We can’t just go ‘hey, guys, sorry for the delay but Danny’s in the hospital in critical condition, okay bye!’”

“Of course not like that. I don’t think we should say anything now, maybe after we have a clear view on Dan’s condition.”

“Should we tell anybody else, though?”

“Like who?”

“I dunno, someone has to know.” Ross shrugged at Arin's remark and returned to his phone.

“How about Mark?” Arin proposed, which got Ross’ attention.

“Mark? I don’t know, man, he already has lost a family member and I don’t think he likes hospitals that much.”

“We don’t have to force him to come for 24 hours, just tell him. Have another person visiting.”

Ross thought hard about it, and then shrugged his shoulders in a ‘fuck it’ way.

“Alright, I’ll text him in the morning, he’s probably asleep now.”

“Of course he’s not asleep; he’s probably wasting his time on Tumblr like he always does.” Arin let out a grin, which made Ross chuckle.

“Nah, it is late anyway, don’t have to take risks. I’ll tell him in the morning.”

~~

2 hours passed before they got any news. By then, Ross had also fallen asleep, despite the shitty coffee he had, and that left Arin alone. The second a doctor came out of the ICU, Arin shot up from his chair, disturbing Ross’ sleep and thus waking him up as well, and lastly Holly.

“Mr. Hanson?”

“Yeah, right here. How’s Danny?” Arin felt the excitement and the dread, anxiety and nervousness taking over him.

“The surgery was a success, we managed to stop the internal bleeding-“ The doctor was interrupted by Arin breathing out a long sigh he didn’t know he was holding.

“He is going to need a few more days to recover in the ICU, then we can transfer him to a room.”

“Can we see him?” Holly asked, now stood up next to Ross.

“From tomorrow you can each come and see him for a few minutes, he is likely not to wake up though. Weren’t there more people here?”

“They’ll come tomorrow. Thanks, doc.” The doctor nodded at Arin and went back inside.

Arin, giddy and light headed from relief, sat right back down with a smile, followed by Ross and Holly. They talked for a while, but Arin didn’t pay attention to the conversation at hand.

Barry was right, he thought. He made it a mental note never to doubt Barry.

_Everything was going to be alright_ , was his last thought before he leaned back and let sleep overtake him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to a lovely person I re-edited the second chapter and fixed this: Dan's in the ICU, not a room yet. I apologize for any inconveniences, Greece's hospitals are a tad different and so I have to get used to the American style.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning Ross did text Mark, who was in the middle of editing videos for his channel. Mark was there within 10 minutes of the text.

Barry and Kevin came a bit later after getting some rest, and Suzy followed afterwards.

Ross also broke the news to the fans, who handled it quite well, sending in their well wishes for Dan.

The minute they were allowed admission to see Dan, Arin was the first person to enter the room.

What he saw almost broke him.

There was Dan, hooked on quite a few machines, completely unconscious. He wore an oxygen mask on top of his face. Arin noted the paleness exaggerating his features, and swallowed the stab of regret, thinking _this is all my fault_ as he walked towards his best friend.

Silently grabbing a chair, he set it next to the bed and sat down, resting his arms on the edge of the bed, his eyes never leaving Dan.

“I’m so sorry, buddy,” His voice barely above a whisper, he leaned in and gently pushed away the strand of poofy hair getting in the way of his face.

“I never meant what I said. I am so, so sorry.” He closed his eyes tightly against the prickling of tears gathering behind the lids.

Of course Dan did not respond, but rather continue breathing in and out through his oxygen mask. For a while, Arin’s eyes lingered on Dan’s chest, watching the steady rise and fall, thanking the universe for not taking Danny away from him.

It was a bit later that Arin found himself taking Dan’s hand into his own and giving it a light squeeze, looking forward to when Dan would wake up and they would sort everything out and everything would be _a-okay_.

Now, Arin doesn’t really believe in miracles. He’s just not that kind of guy. It’s not in his nature.

So when he felt the slightest squeeze back, he was surprised. Really surprised.

It was almost non-existent. Ever so slightly, he felt his hand being given the slightest, weakest squeeze ever. Any other person would not have felt it.

Except for Arin.

He just stared at his hand intertwined with Dan’sand found himself with the biggest smile on his face.

Was that a bit too gay? He didn't care.

It was after the time limit for him had ended that he finally got up and exited the room, that smile still lingering on his face.

~~

After everybody had seen Dan, mostly in pairs, Ross and Holly announced they had to leave, as they were both incredibly worn out and would most likely come back at a later time. Suzy practically forced Kevin to go home and get lots of rest, trying to convince him with ‘you’re too young to be staying in hospitals for that long’, so that left her, Barry, Arin and Mark.

“How’ve you been holding up, Arin?” Mark snapped Arin out of another trance of his, mostly him thinking about how he massively fucked things up.

“You know, the usual,” Arin let out a long sigh.

“Arin, don’t beat yourself up over this,” Suzy smiled, _oh wonderful Suzy_ , and placed her hand on Arin’s head.

“Mark, do you know what happened?”

“Uh, Ross only told me that Danny was in a car crash, I think.”

“Alright. So I have been stressed all week, with family stuff, and I would occasionally have fits of anger and would take out my frustration on everybody, and including Dan.” When Mark silently nodded, Arin continued.

“So Dan broke a plate and I guess I got really pissed, you know? And we started shoutin’ at each other and next thing you know, I told him I didn’t want to be his friend and I hated him and wanted Jon to come back.” Arin saw Mark’s eyes widen to double their size, and buried his face in his hands.

“That was harsh.”

“I know, I never meant it, we were punchin’ each other and in the heat of the moment I said that, which was sheer and utter bullshit, and then he left angry and then, you know.”

“Well, I’m sure Dan knows you never meant it.” Barry smiled.

“Yeah, I hope.”

~~

The days passed quickly, and Dan showed no sign of waking up. Most likely the head trauma, the doctors kept saying and saying to a disbelieving Arin. They ran tests upon tests, with the premise that Dan would soon be in a private room by the end of the week.

That was, if he woke up at all.

Arin spent much of his time in the hospital, the only times he was not there were when he had to record with Ross and started Grumpcade with Mark to fill in episodes. Of course, he would spend a large portion of the day with Suzy, so that left a few hours to visit Dan, alone or with company.

What Arin noticed was that Dan seemed to get paler by the day. Once Arin was in the room and Dan kept weakly groaning and turning, but never waking up, and one time his breathing was shallow and irregular. Albeit, Arin didn’t think much of it.

Obviously that was a _gigantic fucking mistake._

When he was informed that some internal wounds had somehow opened up again, conveniently right in the middle of recording Grumpcade, he was abandoning everything and making a B-line straight for the hospital, Mark right behind him.

Thankfully the team of incredibly skilled doctors managed to stop the internal bleeding that had begun again.

Not so thankfully, they were back to square one.

It took a few days, but Arin saw improvement. Dan could now no longer need the oxygen mark to help him breathe, and he was pretty far into the road of recovery.

But he still would not wake up.

Every night, Arin would pray. Pray to no one in particular. Just pray. Pray that Dan would wake up. Pray that things would go back to normal, and he and Dan could goof around and play video games once more.

Pray that everything would be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rather short chapter today, I am feeling kind of sick and did not have the energy to write anymore. I hope you enjoy this rather somber chapter,as it reflects how I feel today.


	5. Chapter 5

Another few days passed quickly, albeit filled with anxiety. Well, mostly for Arin. He wasn’t getting as many hours of sleep as his body probably needed, spent a lot of his time in the hospital, and apparently he now picked up another habit.

The one of excessively working.

And we’re not talking about the ‘oh hey, I have been working a lot sporadically, I really need a break’ kind.

No, this was the kind where Arin would find himself locked in a room, blocking out all interactions with other people and focusing exclusively on work. And in his case that mostly meant Sequelitis and animating random crap for his channel, since animating was of course his passion and he had slowly kind of abandoned it over the last couple of years in favor of Game Grumps.

And everyone was worried about him.

Barry would come into the room to give Arin some food only to find him drawing some key frames for an unknown animation. When he would try to talk to him, all he would get was ‘leave, Barry’.

And Barry wouldn’t bother much. He knew how stressed Arin was with the whole Dan issue, and his only escape was his work. The only time where he would focus on something else other than his best friend stuck in a hospital bed.

So when Barry got a call from the hospital, which could not call Arin for two reasons: a. Arin’s phone was turned off and b. a special request was not to call Arin but instead someone else oh hey call Barry, that Dan had woken up and was responsive, the first thing he did was inform Arin. Arin, of course, abandoned everything once again, as it’s his thing to do, and he and Barry ran to the hospital.

When they arrived, they were told that some doctors were running tests on Dan to see if everything was okay. After a while, they were allowed to see him, so they both went in the room.

There was Dan, looking up at the ceiling, obviously at deep thought, and this sight alone made Arin so incredulously happy that he wanted to run straight for his buddy and hug him and apologize for all the shit that went down and that he was so so sorry-

“Get out.”

And then Dan was looking straight into his eyes, his voice raspy from that tube shoved down nose and throat, and Arin was so confused he didn’t realize what was going on anymore, and then he realized Barry was looking at him with an equally confused look on his face.

“Dan-“

“Out. Please.” And next thing he knew, Arin was walking straight out of that room, swallowing the stab of disappointment that was caught down his throat and sitting on a nearby chair, not noticing Barry next to him.

“What happened, Bar? Why did he kick us out?”

“I think he kicked _you_ out, he didn’t tell me anything, I just trailed along with you.”

“But why? Isn’t he happy that we went to visit him?”

Barry let out a long sigh.

“You made amends with him when he wasn’t awake. I don’t think that he has forgiven you yet, for the shit that went down that night.”

“Yeah, he was asleep, how can he forgive me when he’s asleep.” Arin scoffed, his eyes down on the floor. Barry felt really bad for him, given that his expression was that of a kicked puppy. Or even worse.

“Look, he’ll come around eventually. The last thing you want to do is keep nagging him. He can’t stay mad at you forever, can he? Let him have some time to think about it. You both need to think about this.” Arin, his eyes now glowing with a little bit of hope, turned his gaze to his friend, who gave him a smile full of encouragement, and a pat on the shoulder. Both men got up and started slowly exiting the hospital.

He would come around, he was sure he would.

Right?

~~

Everything was kind of weird, at first. Here he was, waking up, alone in an unknown bed with a fuzzy mind and unknown machines everywhere, and why weren’t his friends anywhere? Where’s Arin? Where’s everybody?

And then he blinked and suddenly he was surrounded by nurses and a doctor.

When Dan was first told he was unconscious for almost 2 weeks, at first he didn’t believe it. No sane person would, at first. He wondered why he was in the hospital in the first place. Surely something serious must have happened right?

And then his mind decided to think of one word.

The events of that night had come to him in a blur, really. It was a bit later that he remembered exactly what happened that made him drive off angrily.

 _That’s right_ , he thought. _Arin said all those horrible things…_

Dan was not the person to hold grudges on someone for a long time. But here he was now, having just kicked out his best friend, who was more than likely extremely worried about him.

But he just couldn’t find himself to feel remorse.

Maybe it was the head trauma? Nah, that just caused a bit of swelling and was dealt with quickly. And some temporary memory loss, which hasn’t even affected him so far.

Oh right, it was the fact that this was all an act. That Arin wasn’t his friend. He had told him himself that, that he hated him. That he hated him and his band.

That he wanted Jon back.

Dan never held out a grudge against Jon. The guy was one of the funniest people he had met, very caring as well.

Surely a lot better than him, that was.

Jon was better than him in almost every way possible. The guy had a YouTube channel with over a million subscribers, and a very loyal fanbase. A very crazy fanbase at that, but a very loyal one.

Dan just had a small YouTube channel where he dumped his music videos.

It was no secret that it had half a million subs, but he would never achieve the fans that Jon had managed to muster up over the years. Sure, Dan had many fans, both from Game Grumps and NSP, and probably Starbomb as well. But people liked him more for Game Grumps. They liked him more when he was with Arin. As Arin’s little Jewey sidekick.

And Jon had one thing he probably didn’t have.

Arin’s trust.

Dan spent so long believing that Arin was one of his best friends, for God’s sake. And apparently that was a load of sheer bullshit. For whatever reason Jon left, that probably upset Arin a lot, since the two were the best of buds.

For the record, Dan trusted Arin, probably a bit too much. And his trust was betrayed. Arin probably didn’t even trust him, to be brutally honest.

Dan let out a sigh, wiping his eyes with his hands. This whole situation was a mess.

Would he stay on Game Grumps for any longer? Now that he knew the truth, it would most likely be awkward for the both, and the quality would drop. Then he would be forced to leave. Besides, he had gotten quite a few fans of his own now, that liked NSP.

Nah, he would probably think about it the next time he woke up, whatever that was. He just laid back and let sleep take him.

~~

“Oh, don’t worry, Arin. He’ll come around.”

Arin sat on the couch, Suzy and Ross right next to him.

“I hope so. He still thinks everything I said was true. Why the fuck did I say that?” He cupped his head in his hands.

“Don’t worry, buddy. We’ll go talk to him. you and me. Both you and him need to do some serious thinking. I’m sure everything will be a-okay!” Ross patted Arin’s back with a laid-back kind of smile.

How could Ross be so positive all the time? That was one character trait of his that Arin was jealous of. Ross always said that everything would be alright, depending on the situation, and it usually was, so that saved him from the trouble of worrying too much.

That was what Arin’s problem was. He worried too much. He wished he could be as laid-back as Ross but that just was not possible. It wasn’t in his nature.

So all he could do was smile and nod, make them think he believed them. Deep down he did.

Things would get better.

~~

A few days later, Arin and Ross were going straight for the hospital, making sure they were going at an appropriate time for visitors, casually making small talk on the way. Upon arriving there, they found out that Dan was moved to a normal room, and quickly found it.

“You want to go in first?”

“Uh, nah, get in first.” Arin sat on a chair and Ross headed inside.

Ross stayed inside for a good 20 minutes, and when he came out his eyes were on Arin.

“He’s still a bit salty about the whole thing. Not as much as when you and Barry came, so that’s good I guess.” Ross sat down on a chair next to Arin.

“Should I go see him?”

“You should probably give it a little more time. He’s exhausted as well, so he may not even remember the conversation in case you go in now.”

They stayed in silence for a while. Ross went on his phone. He was responsible for updating everyone with that was going on. Of course, he didn’t include the salty parts. He saw there was much love for Dan pouring in from the community, and many YouTubers as well, which made him happy. He was sure it would make Dan happy as well.

The comfortable silence didn’t last for long. Arin broke it, of course.

“What did you talk about with him?”

“Not much. He’s really tired, but he isn’t mad with me, of course. We just talked about nothing in particular, he was just happy to, and I quote, ‘have a new face in the room’. I tried explaining to him the whole issue and he just kept cutting me off, trying to get me to stop talkin’.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. In the end he wanted to get some rest so I just left.”

A couple of hours passed, mostly filled with conversation, until Arin got up.

“Hey, you can leave if ya want, I’m gonna go inside.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah man, go home, it’s okay.”

Ross got up, and gave Arin a reassuring smile before he headed off. Arin took a deep breath and slowly entered the room, wishing with all his being that Dan would be asleep so he wouldn’t get kicked out again.

Much to his relief, he was.

Arin slowly sat on the chair next to the bed, not wanting to disturb the sleeping form.

He looked at Dan for a while, noticing the peaceful look on his face. He still couldn’t help but feel guilty about the fact that his friend was both mad at him and stuck in the hospital, most likely in a lot of pain and stitches.

Thanks to him and his big mouth.

He knew he beat himself up over it too much, everyone told him that. Including himself.

But he couldn’t get himself to stop.

The only thing that mattered now was that he was alive and well. His pointless prayers had worked, somehow. The universe finally didn’t plot against him.

He didn’t care if Dan hated him for the rest of eternity, which was unlikely, given that it was _Dan_ we were talking about here. All he cared about was that he was okay.

Arin directed his gaze on the floor with a long sigh, and that was when he heard it. That familiar voice.

“You do that a lot? Watching people sleep?” He looked up, his eyes locking with two familiar almond orbs.

“Usually at night. That’s when it gets most interesting,” he found himself smirking with an eyebrow wiggle, which made the figure on the bed giggle, muttering ‘so stupid’ affectionately. That was basically music to Arin’s ears, and he contemplated hugging him then and there.

There was a brief pause, where the one tried to deduce the other, both intently looking into each other’s eyes.

“So are you gonna kiss me or what?” Dan suddenly said, which made both burst into a fit of giggles once again.

"I tend to buy 'em dinner first," Arin said with a wink. _Alright, this is working out._

Dan then breathed in sharply, muttering an ‘ow’ and shifting position on the bed to face Arin better.

“Hurts, huh?” _Why is this so awkward?_

“Yeah, it does. I’m all stitched up. Got some on the stomach, chest, even on the back of my head.” Dan lifted his head to reveal a patch of shaved hair, which made Arin’s eyes widen.

“They had to relieve some pressure in my head or something.”

“It probably took them a long time to cut through the Jewfro, though.” Arin chuckled, which made Dan giggle as well.

“Yeah, it’s like a jungle in there.”

Silence fell once again. Arin fidgeted with his sleeve, while Dan returned his gaze on the ceiling.

“Hey man, I’m sorry for, you know.” Arin finally broke the silence. Dan slowly looked over to him, but did not say anything.

“I’m so sorry. I never meant what I said, really. You’re my _best friend_ , buddy. It was all in the heat of the moment, you know, with the whole punch thing. If that hadn’t happened I would have _never_ told you that.”

Arin sighed, still staring at Dan’s eyes. He moved his chair a bit closer, resting his hands on the edge of the bed, his head a few inches away from Dan.

“I do miss Jon, since he was a good friend and moved away. You tend to miss people if they leave. But I do _not_ want him to come back to Game Grumps. If he ever wants to do like a special episode, that’s alright. But no one can replace you. You’re my Not-So-Grump. You’re my friend, Danny. And I am sorry for anything hurtful I might have said to you that night. You don’t suck, your band doesn’t suck, and nothing was ever a lie. And I know I am rambling again, I do that a lot, but please know-”

Arin was interrupted by Dan suddenly giving him what was possibly the greatest hug he had been given. He buried his head on Dan’s shoulder, until Dan pulled away.

“God _damnit_ , Arin.” Dan chuckled, hot tears prickling at his face. Arin let out a laugh, giddy from relief that this whole ordeal was over.

“I trust you, man. I just hope this is all true.”

“It is, it is.”

And so comfortable silence fell around them, their hands intertwined as they both said nothing, and maybe it was all a bit too gay.

But who cares? Their bond was reformed, and stronger than before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, my head hurts a lot from writing this. I am hooked up on Nyquil, so that might be just it. I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and this story is nearing its end D:


End file.
